the stakes are high for egypt as a voice on a new constitution that has already told the nation apart by sparking a new wave of outrage under this tree. slaughter her reflects kayo in the us school with twenty six people killed in a spree shooting most of the pupils understand. that price is a sterile she cries and now seemingly calorie crisis britain finds arning food costs mean that healthy options are out of their room. and you saw russia under around the world this is are she with me thanks for

joining us egyptians are deciding the fate of a brand new constitution which has divided the nation and turns the streets in the country's key cities into a battlefield a chorus of critics have pushed for those referendums delay's saying that the islamic law document is flawed and not representative of the population of cairo based reporter about true now reports. after three weeks of political turmoil that seen mass rallies against the president timed also bloody scenes in the streets of egypt's major cities overnight the military apparently beat up security at the polling stations ready for people to come and vote they of course have been called in by the president to secure the nation during this time of political unrest and the referendum we expect out hundreds of thousands of police officers and soldiers in the streets today ensuring that the scenes are calm this comes after violent scenes yesterday on friday and on xandra egypt's second city which saw clashes

between rival protest groups to support the constitution those against it including groups wielding machetes. also iron rods and with around about nineteen injured and possible dead we haven't had that confirmed yet this of course follows several weeks worth of bile and seats in the streets of cairo the referendum is actually being held across two days is there not a sufficient number of judges to supervise the process this opposition forces say is a major problem and could open up the referendum to vote rigging in addition civil society groups here questioning how that is possible for them to observe the elections for electoral fraud since the head of the constituent assembly who drafted the constitution is also the head of the national human rights council he will be overseeing the observation of the polling stations the constitution itself is a major point of contention also for opposition forces they have said that it is written by islamist dominated constituent assembly somebody when this mass will cross by

liberal leftist and church and therefore it will only enforce a religious state it also they said would impose a presidential dictatorship and neglect key rights and freedoms of expression so this constitution they say should be rewritten the constituent assembly should be reforged so we'll have to see with the results of the referendum the future of egypt's. deep division between egypt's opposition is another reason why the vote on the referendum is unlikely to reflect the cheese of the public says journalist and middle east analyst. morsi is not showing any signs of flexibility he's not showing any signs of building consensus he is shown to be a very stubborn person regardless of the outcome of the referendum these seen in egypt right now it's indicative that there is going to be him as.

playing with the results there is already reports about money substances being given to poor people to encourage them to go out and vote favorably with yes for the constitution and on the other side the egyptians are still divided into different groups and democratization of the voters are not going as it should have been going so it's not really representative of the nations when or of the consensus the truth have been existing. tech is taking the chance to abandon old friendship to some science of. health reform to indicate syria's president assad hoping to win western support and possible but hold in syria but turns a blind eye to internal conflict got that report. as

one of the worst school shootings in u.s. history twenty six people gunned down in a u.s. primary school in connecticut twenty of them young children pupils had tried to hide from the killer in classrooms and closets but the bloodbath ended only when he turned the gun on himself and woman believed to be his mother was also found dead at her house and he's going to check out reports now on the massacre of innocent life. there's still lots of questions as to what happened at that elementary school in connecticut the shooter has not been officially identified at this point but according to various reports it was adam lanza a twenty year old who went into his mother's kindergarten class she was a teacher at that school and wiped out the entire class twenty children were killed in the carnage eighteen children died at the scene two at the hospital those were five year olds six year olds small children the shooter also targeted and killed six adults and unless his mother the teacher was also found dead in her home near the school the suspect that is the suspected shooter had three guns on him as he

went into the school two handguns and one semiautomatic weapon all reportedly registered to adam lanza's mother a witness said there must have been one hundred rounds fired after killing all these people at unless they reportedly shot himself there has been a number of horrifying shootings at schools in the u.s. in the past but never has there been a rampage that killed this many small children in two thousand and seven a student killed thirty two people at virginia tech we of course remember the columbine massacre in colorado where two students struck and killed thirteen people and injured twenty four but the children killed in connecticut were very very young we heard president obama delivered tearful speech this friday but nevertheless the white house has pretty much dodged questions on its gun policy and those are questions on many people's minds right now but the president does say it's time to take meaningful action to prevent

a mess across like this from happening again but what action he did not specify is the fact of the matter is that getting a gun is fairly easy in the u.s. adam lanza's mother apparently had no problem purchasing and registering story guns one of them a semi automatic weapon and it's a powerful deadly weapon one of the policy goals of president obama was a ban on assault weapons but is thought to be a. losing proposition for any politician in the u.s. to really seriously consider seriously take on the issue attempts to regulate guns inevitably hit a wall and that wall is the second amendment the right of the people to bear arms some states here do have controls over gun possession but again very limited controls the state of illinois for example used to have a ban on concealed weapons but this week a federal court ruling struck down the country's last such poor vision as unconstitutional and ordered the state to craft a law allowing it so much for gun control in the us the state of wisconsin tossed

out its ban on concealed weapons last year and it seems there is no way of arguing against the amendment even despite these absolutely horrifying and recurring incidents. so the trial she once again triggered a wave of criticism that getting your hands on a weapon in america is too easy she's liz will went to the white house to see an empty guns ronnie. many people are taking their concerns to the front of the white house as you can see about one hundred people are gathered here holding signs holding candles trying to make their voices heard saying that now is the time to talk about gun control in the u.s. we spoke to some of the protesters here's what they had to say today we saw a roomful of kindergartners shall ordered by a guy who never should have gotten a gun. if our president can't talk about it the issue now as a father of two daughters young daughters i think it's time for him for a gut check in it's there's no more and no more excuses anymore this should not

have happened we should have measures in place before this to prevent people from accessing guns who are not fit to hold them also in my opinion i don't think something that is military grade as an assault rifle i don't think that should be in the hands of anybody it's not a toy and we can't keep our teachers and our children and our school administrators safe and very day we can keep people who are walking down the streets safe then that should be changed and to resign ourselves to the to saying that this is a problem that has a solution is defeatist and we should we should take this on and change what we did hear from press secretary jay carney earlier this morning who said today is not the day to be talking about gun control we also heard a very emotional speech from president obama sending his condolences to the victims to the family is in newtown connecticut he did not talk about the issue of guns or gun control but protesters here say if today is not the day in the wake of this

very tragic mass shooting they don't know when that time. and washington lives wall are to. a landmark ruling for the first time a european court has found the cia guilty of. its turn its way to behind a german citizen who was wrongly detained sodomized by members of the u.s. intelligence agency is coming your way to this break. the san bernardino california police force was to shrink by eighty officers this year to cover their budget deficit during a local meeting the chief of police laid out the city's problems the sea is facing waves of gang violence theft and drug trafficking but with all the prisons completely overcrowded many of these criminals go right back on to the street and there's just nobody to put more police out there to fight them the police chief

really only had one solution offer a given situation go home lock your doors and load your gun and you know what actually that's not that bad of a proposition america's always been a country where people been expected to look out for themselves and i appreciate the police chief's honesty but i know the world we live in and i have a feeling that the second some homeowner shoots a guy who jumps over his fence at night that homeowners going to go to jail for life you can't expect that a nineteenth century attitude towards crime will be able to work in a twenty first century world where rapists can sue you because they slipped on your slippery kitchen floor if you want people to be able to defend themselves that's great but you have to allow them the legal liberty to do so or else the criminals will just take over but that's just my opinion. of the. science technology innovation all these developments from around russia

we've done the future covered. years um to see. destruction without to see. what could have been just ruins. saved by a great sacrifice. understood by huge as a. reminder of courage and selflessness. beauty is a. song

by. morning news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations the day. the let's move on. germany and the netherlands deploying patriot missiles manned by through hundred american troops in turkey next to syria's northern border officially tasked with defense against possible cross border aggression they

missiles range will extend deep into syria have a tree. why it is so eager to contain its former friend. he may have treated his command bridge for an apartment in istanbul but retired admiral turner curry turk still keeps tabs on his country's foreign policy and he doesn't like what he sees like many turkish patriots the admiral believes his country is second fighting common sense and domestic concerns from western interests. turkey is looking at the middle east through america's eyes not for a purely turkish perspective for example with syria turkey claims it wants to see democracy in syria but look who it's working with saudi arabia qatar and their democratic credit is one thing forget the zero problems with neighbor's rule which in chorale has prided itself on for many decades critics now see turkey as dancing to one nation's. people but

that does not suffice. because. in truth. people internalize u.s. policy and represent in the concrete. this is very tricky comes in graphically and culturally it's a great base camp for the likes of the u.s. and nato to take a foothold in their anti acid ambitions it was just two years ago that turkey was calling bashar a loss of a brother and voting against sanctions on iran its relatively recent change of heart however may not have everything to do with turkey's desire to appease the west and may indeed be part of a plan by turkish officials to become regional if not global major players.

but it was someone who used to go. it was true on top and in syria was part of the land but now syria is. a member of united nations. and independent state and turkey hasn't any rights on syria to intervene on syrian policy internal issues there is a conflict for thirty years in threaten. to which they cling to forces and every day tens of. people young people lost their life from both sides so. if i. stop the bloodshed in turkey then think about syria or palestine. yet turkish officials seem to

skirt the issue of their internal problems and instead turn their attention elsewhere syria the case in point with the likes of retired admiral in turkey believe the turkish ship is a person one should its present commanders continue on their current course. now is the christmas period becoming an obsession to buy as much as you can find out later the problem. go back to church to read the bible to find. remember what the holiday is supposed to be for i just think people should read that every year to be the best christmas ever. drawing or a half minutes later in the program a trip is the streets of new. versions and biting off less than they can cheer it seems as the cost of health of foods made

them beyond the reach of many people food prices that are going up by a sudden just five years leaving many families stuck on cheap prepackaged meals. reports now on how stunned that shopping list is quickly becoming a luxury. do you look at what you're putting in your shopping basket health conscious customers might want to stock up on their fruit and vege but what if that's getting too expensive for families in the u.k. the cost of their weekly shop has gone up by over a third over the past five years and it's set to get more expensive still among the healthier fresh meat so you can find chicken breasts for five ninety nine per kilogram and you've got your frozen process retailing at one twenty nine in some cases now if you're a struggling household with lots of mouths to feed it's a no brainer britain is now in the midst of a nutritional recession to go hand in hand with the financial one over a million children in the u.k. growing without a daily healthy meal not

a coalition government provide free fruit and vege to schools and they supplement those on the lower income but it looks like the cheaper meal deals are often more appealing than the government health warnings health campaigners say it's time for the government to several new plan to get britain struggling households to acquire not just the taste but also the means for a healthier diet. the european court of human rights has made its first ever ruling that the cia is guilty of torture in a case involving a german citizen the course on that. was illegally abducted tortured and sodomized by u.s. agents after being mistaken for an al qaeda member nine years ago the two us is now being sued for an apology and compensation but also an historian doug valentine says that this is unlikely to happen as the cia operates above him and. those.

person or persons who are you know it states a good deal because these people are simply above the law. those. who. want to it's above the war. business is doing things that are illegal so the fact that it's found guilty europe or asia or south america or any place of doing it legal things is a confirmation of what it does the c.e.o. is not a pro bill of. those things without prior authorization from congress the president and its national security officers everything that it does is policy. so christmas is a time when shops hope to do some brisk business but resident i'll see you this in the festive spirit is turning into a shopaholic at diction. why

have the holidays become such hellish days this week let's talk about that it's a commercial thing now everyone's sent to spend money it's not about what it really should be about how did that happen is that the media telling us to buy buy buy a absolutely it's everyone with their sales and absolutely i live on what people buy you know and i'm an independent sales rep so i depend on it so you're happy with this christmas i'm happier this christmas i sell luxury goods as long as people keep buying into i have a holiday that's it a way to stop that would be to go back to church to read the bible and to find faith and to remember what the holiday is supposed to be for what about people of other religions and it is there any saving for them i said i said to find religion . is there saving for them i believe in christianity but i think it's important that whether it's christiane to be or not that you have morals and values based on religious faith do you think there's a war in christmas oh i don't think there's

a war on christmas i just think people shouldn't think that every year has to be the best christmas ever is that what we do we set our expectations too high we do i think that we should just enjoy it that each year should be a nice christmas with a couple of presents maybe full of press that's right along with the feeling of safety and community with holidays hobbies also remind people believe or not it's just my opinion holidays remind people of their own mortality that we're not going to be around here very much longer and our lives are very short. because we tend to remember the people who have gone on the holidays as well and that's why we p.c. the holidays we just want to feel safe we want to feel like i'm extending my time here a little bit more and i want you to believe what i believe and maybe if someone others or someone else's beliefs makes us feel better and that's exactly it would take an intro dose since i'm approaching the fiscal cliff it's not as much about. shopping this year as all the rest of my fifty nine years sixty of you are going to be a little bit different how you can do it differently. are the same but he was going

to be on facebook. just watching people make christmas and calling it a day like whether or not the world has lost its holiday spirit the bottom line is it wouldn't hurt any of us to take a look inside to find our own private reason to celebrate this thing. and right after the break we head to our washington studio while company account was laura mr hamlin elsie. in japan the average height for men is one hundred eighty two centimeters ten centimeters shorter because of that some employers refused to hire me one of them even told me directly that i was too short to deal with the client's computers already spent three months in this hospital and plans to stay for another four to add the coveted seven santa majors to his stature invented by the famed soviet

orthopedic is good for you is there for the night in fifty these frames were initially used to treat fractures in deformities by cutting bones and slowly pulling them up or therefore stimulating tissue regeneration it was off was able to receive arms and legs and people who thought they were crippled for life be sent to the other patients shattered bones in their shattered lives to go when professor of design first frame bicycle parts sixty years later he says invention is increasingly being used to help people what eager to fracture their legs to become a few centimeters taller than the ultimate goal is still the same fixing somebodies lives both literally and figuratively about a third of patients admitted to the always out of center nowadays seeking series three focus medical reasons most of them a man and most are not what you would call vertically challenged professor novick

of who operated on many of them says it usually comes down to a man's pride some of the first patient to turn to us with a leg lengthening request to meet his fifteen centimeters to still want to surgery because his partner was tool than him we like to say that we need to break their legs in order to fix their head maybe nothing wrong with them from an orthopedic point of view but there is something psychological that prevents them from living their lives fully being happy and we fix it like lengthening surgeries are banned in many countries and even the out there press. expensive in russia the entire course costs eleven thousand dollars about one tenth of the similar package in the united states financial considerations were one of the reasons that brought this washington state native to western siberia if his main motive for the surgery had to do with how he fared auditors in america advertised as one seventy five i was one sixty seven or one sixty eight and so on eight centimeters would have brought

me right to average users wanted to be average for women height isn't so important you know i think girl can be sure it's not a big deal like your guy is like expected to be taller just before the operation most matter erosion girl who found he's a regional hide quite in deering yet he still want to have had the surgery adding seven more centimeters to he self-confidence she told me the whole time you're crazy you're normal you're perfect. so now or so they call you so what a compliment for somebody who's used to falling short of his own expectations. good afternoon welcome to capital account i'm more in the store here in washington d.c.

these are headlines for friday december fourteenth two thousand and twelve whether it is going over the fiscal cliff or spanish house prices suffering a severe fall there seems to be a universal fear a financial fear of gravity we're scared of falling but ironically we don't seem to have much fear of altitude push should we jim grant founder and publisher of grant's interest rate observer is here to offer his bimonthly outlook plus voters in japan head to the polls sunday to cast their ballots and parliamentary elections and if recent polls are any indication they look set to elect. he's leader of japan's main opposition party he's set to be the next prime minister in the face of technical recession and weak exports in that country he is demanding the make of japan begin unlimited q.e. yes i know japan has been deflating for the past twenty five years so why should we pay attention to this call from a politician today we'll ask our guests plus we had a tremendous response from you this week we will share in viewer feedback let's get to today's capital account.

we have openly wondered on this show if the extraordinarily low interest rates charged to the u.s. treasury for its borrowing needs have been the result of the fed's ratios appetite for fixed income securities in the past four years that yields have been if this rated by fed policy there is no question the only question for us is if this is the result of fed policy past or present in other words is it the seemingly obvious presence of the fed in the bond market today as the major buyer of uncle sam's ious which is keeping rates low or was it the fed's accommodative monetary policy during the boom years and the subsequent urged by the private sector to relieve itself of

overpriced assets in the bust that has kept yields from rising in either case we find fault with the fed for if yields were kids we would be a little worried about this. what the thomson kids to they're about this big there in the backyard through the boat with the trying. to grow up at the door . i guess we would call it honey i shrunk the yield curve only in this scenario policy wonks in control of the shrink ray as the particle eviscerate are used by rick moran of his character was actually called seem hardly concerned about our new microscopic interest rates if anything the lower they go the more the fed may print forcing a new class of indentured investor out to scavenge for more yield in the front lawn fortunately for us our next guest is now used to viewing fed policy with a microscopic microscope bimonthly in his latest issue of grant's letters editor jim graham uses over some of the similarities and differences.